<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>Definitions on Blood Magic by ushauz</title>
<style type="text/css">

body { background-color: #ffffff; }
.CI {
text-align:center;
margin-top:0px;
margin-bottom:0px;
padding:0px;
}
.center   {text-align: center;}
.cover    {text-align: center;}
.full     {width: 100%; }
.quarter  {width: 25%; }
.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
.u        {text-decoration: underline;}
.bold     {font-weight: bold;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27662441">Definitions on Blood Magic</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/ushauz/pseuds/ushauz'>ushauz</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Dragon Age: Inquisition</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Blood Magic, Gen, if Gaider can write Dorian doing blood magic so can I, just a little but it's there</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-11-22</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-11-22</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 22:19:30</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,703</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27662441</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/ushauz/pseuds/ushauz</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Dorian isn't a blood mage, though that does depend on which country he's in.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>21</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>80</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Definitions on Blood Magic</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Inspired by Gaider's fanfic where Dorian straight up does blood magic like it's no big deal. I for one am happy to accept Dorian as a blood mage.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Varric knew he had a tendency to ignore obvious signs he didn’t like. He ignored a lot over the years, because he didn’t like it, wanted everyone to sit down and play nice and not fight because he had friends on both sides, and then that all literally blew up in front of him.</p><p>He was still mad at Anders for forcing him to choose a side, even knowing that was the whole point of Anders. Or Justice. Or whoever he was calling himself now.</p><p>(He’d said from the start he was both. Varric knew he was being unfair. Apparently the Circles were bad enough that even Sunshine flipped on her opinions and was pro-revolution after spending a mere six years in there. It was just easier to have someone to blame.)</p><p>But even if he had tendencies, he was a spymaster. Perhaps not of the same level of Leliana, but he had his network, and he paid all sorts of attention to signs that didn’t make him upset. Signs that were interesting, or useful.</p><p>Signs that had a whiff of a story about them.</p><p>Like that Tiny, a good Qunari, had a mage in his group, and yet no arvaarad or ex-Templar. Sure, Tallis had been willing to temporarily work with a mage, but she’d made her opinions clear, and she’d also made it clear that she was right there on the outskirts, barely able to get back. A sneeze away from Tal-Vashoth herself.</p><p>He was pretty sure that no matter how useful a cover, that was against the Ben-Hassrath codebook.</p><p>Or like that Buttercup claimed she was just here to put the world back to normal and couldn’t give one whit about larger things, and yet, she had spent a great amount of time talking to the resident spymaster for things completely unrelated to incorporating her Friends, and she kept taking and putting back the same few books from the library in Haven.</p><p>The Herald of Andraste business had her rattled, and she was looking for answers she would probably never find.</p><p>Though if she found them, he’d be one of the first to ask, because this was rattling him as well, and he traveled around with <em> Hawke </em> for seven years.</p><p>And then, well, then there was Sparkler, who talked around any and all things.</p><p>“What people call blood magic here, and what we consider blood magic, are two different things,” Dorian was saying to their illustrious Herald.</p><p>What <em> we </em>consider blood magic to be.</p><p>Interesting. Possible slip of the tongue, possibly not. Still, Varric listened.</p><p>“Blood magic isn’t inherently dangerous. Using your own blood or that of a willing participant- what’s the harm? The problem is what’s permitted only gets you so much power, and what if you need more? You always need more. That’s where we get into sacrifices, and demon summoning. None of that is done, not officially. Behind closed doors is a different story. Real blood magic can give you an edge, a leg up against your opponents. It’s safe to assume any major ranking does it, and the rest are quietly shut out of power.”</p><p>The Herald gave Dorian a considering look. “There must be some mages who oppose this.”</p><p>Fishing, of course.</p><p>“Of course. I do, and I’m not <em> entirely </em> alone,” Dorian said, and perhaps Varric was still too soft, but he felt that Dorian truly meant that, and wasn’t just hoping the Herald wasn’t about to stab him. “Occasionally there will be a magister who makes noise, and then the reform talk begins, all very patriotic. Meanwhile that magister will be quietly shunned, and then chances are—surprise—it’s learned he was a maleficar all along. Most learn to keep quiet. Me, I enjoy the allure of pariahhood.”</p><p>The Herald gave Dorian a look. “So you aren’t a blood mage then?”</p><p>“Of course not,” Dorian said, and Varric noticed very distinctly that Dorian didn’t mention which definition of blood mage he wasn’t.</p><p>—</p><p>Varric remembered that conversation, kept in the back of his mind. Somewhat of a disappointment, to be sure, but most mages in Kirkwall had been blood mages. Daisy herself had been one, and her problem had been less the blood magic and more of her sheer obsession over that blasted mirror.</p><p>And as much as he loathed the idea of backsliding, his thoughts were forever stuck, forever cycling around Kirkwall, what could have been, ways he could have avoided or prevented it all.</p><p>The Herald closed the Breach, and then survived a mountain falling on them, and then survived traveling for hours through a blizzard. Sure, Varric was familiar with heroes, but it all seemed too large, too great. They found Skyhold, refocused there, and Varric brought in Hawke because Corypheus was their collective fault.</p><p>Varric continued to make his observations, and sure, he ended up being wrong about a few things.</p><p>But. In the end, Tiny went Tal-Vashoth, clinging to his Chargers over the Qun. He adjusted remarkably well, all things considered. ‘Guilt for not feeling guiltier’ Cole said.</p><p>Buttercup eventually admitted she had joined up because both the Herald and the Breach business had her rattled, and she wanted to see if Andraste was behind any of this. Some questions were too large to ignore, even if she pretended otherwise. She had her own image to maintain, after all. Most did.</p><p>And Sparkler? Well.</p><p>Emprise du Lion was frigid, and cold, and he and Dorian had ended up complaining buddies. The Inquisitor, Blackwall, and Solas decided to scout ahead, while Dorian and Varric stayed behind at an intersection.</p><p>Which was good, because that meant the arrow pinged off of Dorian’s barrier instead of piercing Varric’s sensitive dwarven flesh.</p><p>“Shit,” Varric said succinctly, already loading and firing Bianca, having traveled so long with Hawke that some things were just muscle memory.</p><p>The first of the three Red Templars fell, gurgling in his? Their? Its? Throat. Apparently they still needed blood, or the early ones still needed blood. The storyteller part of his brain seized on that detail, deciding that would make it to print whenever he wrote about the shit that happened here. Remind the readers, these were all people once. Maybe still were under the red lyrium, and wasn’t that horrifying?</p><p>Cole having been a demon and currently being a confused kid was already hammering home that all monsters were or could be people. Important to remember that it wasn’t a binary distinction, monster, person. Monsterhood was obtainable by anyone.</p><p>The second arrow crunched through the protective lyrium shell and into the arm of the second. It didn’t slow him, but then the dead Red Templar suddenly whipped its hand and grabbed the ankle of the Red Templar in front of it, dragging that one down.</p><p>Varric shot again, finishing off the second through the ear, but the third turned eyes of pure malice and reached out a hand, and then Dorian crumpled to the ground, barrier dropping around them.</p><p>“Shit!” Varric said a lot more fervently. Pull, nock, release, but the arrow only scraped against the lyrium, and then the Red Templar was upon him.</p><p>Varric dodged out of the way, but before the Red Templar could try stabbing him again, he/it screamed as lightning coursed through the body. Varric didn’t pause and quickly took the moment to line up a good shot through flesh and not stone, and the Red Templar crumpled, twitching.</p><p>Dorian sat up, slowly and shakily. He was, in fact, bleeding slightly from his nose.</p><p>A split second of hesitation, but then Varric pushed past it and offered Dorian a hand up. Or as up as Varric could manage as Dorian unfolded into his tall human lengths.</p><p>Dorian took it, weakly got to his feet, and brushed the snow off of his robes. He then gave Varric a look.</p><p>“So are we both going to pretend that you didn’t know what that was, or-”</p><p>At least Dorian wasn’t going to play him for an idiot, because yeah. Varric knew what a Smite looked like for mages. And he definitely knew they weren’t in any casting capacity after. Normal magic, anyway.</p><p>“I’m not going to make a deal out of it,” Varric said amicably. “Some of my best friends are blood mages.”</p><p>Dorian’s nose wrinkled at that word in distaste.</p><p>“You are in the South, with the Southern definitions,” Varric pointed out. “But it’s really not that big of a deal. I don’t think anyone would mind. Or, well, mind that much.”</p><p>“No? No one? Not even Cassandra with her sword she named ‘death to all blood mages’? I appreciate the voice of support, but I think I’d rather not.”</p><p>Varric laughed, a tad more bitter than he meant. “Okay, fair point. Not everyone would be pleased with that turn of events.” And then he gave him a side glance. “Especially not Buttercup and Tiny, right?”</p><p>Dorian’s silence was all kinds of telling.</p><p>“You may feel like telling them eventually,” he said. “That’s the sort of thing that people hate finding out not from your own lips.”</p><p>“Well our chances of dying increase every day, and statistically neither of us will survive this,” Dorian said casually. Half of him meant it, too. A twinge of worry, but he didn’t sound nearly as bad as Blondie had. This time, definitely make sure mages don’t do drastic things when they feel they are at the end of their rope. “I’ll burn that bridge when I come to it.”</p><p>Read: insecurity issues.</p><p>“Well I won’t tell anyone,” Varric said. “Still. You might consider it.”</p><p>Dorian paused for a moment. “As I understand it… Merrill was also a blood mage by Southern standards but not by Northern. Did Hawke’s motley band end up accepting her magic in the end?”</p><p>Varric winced, and Dorian nodded to himself. “Thanks, but I’m taking this one with me to the grave.”</p><p>Varric felt like he wanted to argue this. You never knew. Before that final year, things felt like they had been making some kind of progress. Right?</p><p>But then he heard the Inquisitor’s voice in the background. Dorian wiped the blood off of his face, and neither of them said a word.</p>
  </div></div>
</body>
</html>